WEYMOUTH – Anthony D. “Tony” Fontes III of Weymouth had “the fever.” He is 53, a tenured college professor, chairman of the business administration department at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston. He also owns a real estate and investment business specializing in distressed properties, volunteers for hospice, is married with three grown children and adopts three-legged black labs with his wife Kimberly.

In November he emailed: “As I get older, I seem to have become more of a champion of older people, now being one of them. I was reading your column one night in my recliner with my (now required) reading glasses and got a spur of inspiration from one of your stories. I often get motivated by people who are older but doing meaningful things without letting age define or limit them.

“I have worked out and lifted weights most of my adult life to stay in shape. I really began this journey at age 16 when I hung my first poster of Arnold Schwarzenegger on my bedroom wall. I was a thin kid, bullied at times, and I began lifting weights as a way to fight back.

“That night after reading one of your stories, I decided to get out of my recliner and go for it. I embarked on this journey last February with the goal of finally competing in a bodybuilding competition. It was ‘now or never.’

“I sought out a competition that I could shoot for and found one on Veteran’s Day in Providence called the Battle of the Godz. I consulted a bodybuilding coach for training, nutritional counseling and contest preparation. He prescribed a specific diet and I trained and dieted for 10 months and dropped 51 pounds to get in contest shape. It was grueling, exhausting and all-encompassing; I ate the same things every day for 10 months.

“On Veterans Day 2017, I competed in two classes, the 50+ age category and the novice class for all ages competing for the first time. I knew I’d be competing against the 20-somethings but I was aiming for the experience.

“The morning of the show I was still in panic mode, wondering if I had what it took to be on stage. Self-analysis and overwhelming self-doubt had been a constant throughout this process. My goal, truly, was just to have a respectable showing and look as if I belonged on stage. To have my wife, children, family and friends proud of me would be a win in my mind.

“Walking on stage, a sense of calm came over me. I was there, I had made it. Whatever happened after that was bonus. Under the bright lights I began to hit my mandatory poses and as I heard my family and friends cheering me on, I was overwhelmed with a sense of pride and accomplishment. This was truly the hardest thing I’ve ever undertaken.

“I won first place in the 50+ age class – a thrill in and of itself. However, I was most proud of my placing in the novice class, 4th out of 13 contestants. I was the oldest competitor in this class and I bested nine other competitors much younger than I. The winner of this class was 22 – as my sister Kathleen Fontes put it, ‘over three decades younger than you!’

“The day was a mix of emotions; pride, accomplishment, and gratefulness. The real win was over myself -- that is who I was really competing against.”

Fontes hasn’t decided if he will enter any more bodybuilding contests. His refreshing take-away lesson is that “one can be inspired by someone who is older and doing that thing that inspires them – without age defining them.”

I met Fontes recently at The Weymouth Club where he works out regularly. He grew up in Easton, graduated from Oliver Ames High School in 1982, earned his bachelors degree at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy and his masters from Lesley University. He has three grown children, Anthony, Daniel and Molly, from a previous marriage;

He volunteered for Ascend Hospice after his mother, Barbara, of Easton died in 2014 of cancer and had used hospice. So far he has worked with two older women; one recently died.

A man of unusual drive, discipline and openness, he is grateful for other older people who “are going out and accomplishing their dreams and living full and active lives.”

Thank you to the elders profiled here who inspired Fontes to “ponder my own aspirations and provided the oomph I needed to get my act together and stop making age an excuse, especially when it came to my physical being.”

Reach Sue Scheible at scheible@ledger.com, 617-786-7044, or The Patriot Ledger, P.O. Box 699159, Quincy 02269-9159. Read her Good Age blog on our website. Follow her on Twitter @ sues_ledger.

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